Celebrity/Influencer driven society

[Mudball]

Maybe i am the only one... but everytime i see headlines (incl in the BBC) like 'Willow Smith opens up about being polyamorous' or 'Catlyn Jenner that.. ' or another two-bit Instagram influencer talking about climate change... the first thing i have to do is to google them to find who they are.
Are we now in an influencer driven society where opinions of golf forum is more important than that of a 16 yr old 'TikTok star'? i find it mildly irritating to say the least

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It is cheap and easy (lazy) journalism to fill online space with views of these people. I agree it is painful and no, you are not alone in having to google them. People can say don't read it, I don't, but news sites get filled with this stuff so you can not avoid it entirely. I'd like to think it is a phase but sadly not so we will just have to get used to skimming over these stories.

 

[arnieboy]

I certainly wouldn't waste my time Googling these so called celebrities, no interest in them whatsoever.

 

[Slab]

I wonder if we’ve passed the tipping point where the negatives in and around social media outweigh the initial purpose and associated positives

 

[Deleted member 15344]

It’s a social media world now and millions now have a social media presence on one of the many platforms

For all the bad that people see there are prob a significant amount of good that is seen and done by the “celebs or influencers”

When people don’t grow up with this then they will question it’s worth but it’s always worth remembering that whilst we may not see the worth in Will Smiths daughter saying something but there might well be a scared teenager who uses those words to be brave and not hide away

 

[Mudball]

I certainly wouldn't waste my time Googling these so called celebrities, no interest in them whatsoever.

i google them because, these days i am not sure who is who... in case of Willow Smith - it was the first time i heard his/her name... i thought it was Will Smith the actor... but i see celebrity kids have star power too..

 

[Crumplezone]

It's absolutely nothing new. Celebrities have been the stock in trade of the gutter press for 200 years or more and have been influencing people's consumer choices that long too.

 

[GB72]

This is it, simply a change in the way things are marketed, a move away from TV and Radio marketing to having your product used by the right person. Suddenly it is seen by millions, all in the right demographic. These people then court press and TV attention as that adds more followers and that grows their brand. Pretty much the same as TV ratings and the higher the rating then the more that can be charged for adverts etc.

 

[Blue in Munich]

It’s a social media world now and millions now have a social media presence on one of the many platforms

For all the bad that people see there are prob a significant amount of good that is seen and done by the “celebs or influencers”

When people don’t grow up with this then they will question it’s worth but it’s always worth remembering that whilst we may not see the worth in Will Smiths daughter saying something but there might well be a scared teenager who uses those words to be brave and not hide away

Whilst not doubting that some good will have come out of this as you describe Phil, I’m of the opinion that sadly it has permitted far more harm to be done in the form of anonymous cyber bullying. Racists, sexists and misogynists seem to get a free pass on social media that they wouldn’t get away with face to face.

 

[Mudball]

It’s a social media world now and millions now have a social media presence on one of the many platforms

For all the bad that people see there are prob a significant amount of good that is seen and done by the “celebs or influencers”

When people don’t grow up with this then they will question it’s worth but it’s always worth remembering that whilst we may not see the worth in Will Smiths daughter saying something but there might well be a scared teenager who uses those words to be brave and not hide away

I agree with you...
on another note.. and not wanting to pick on what she said about being polyamarous (another word i had to google)... how is it different from my teenage days.. i was chasing every lady in town - however very few (read none) fell for me ... Isnt it this just normal life

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Whilst not doubting that some good will have come out of this as you describe Phil, I’m of the opinion that sadly it has permitted far more harm to be done in the form of anonymous cyber bullying. Racists, sexists and misogynists seem to get a free pass on social media that they wouldn’t get away with face to face.

There is no doubt about that at all Rich - that’s the disgraceful side of social media - the ability for people to hide behind a screen and post as you say - racist , sexist messages to anyone they wish and be able to have no responsibility.

Twitter for example has become a disgusting social media base and the sooner they address it the better.

Add in cyber bullying which is very harmful

 

[SatchFan]

What annoys me is that without even looking I know who some of these people are. Even more annoying is how much money is showered on them without doing what seems to be much more than just existing. Am I jealous? Absolutely.

 

[GB72]

There is no doubt about that at all Rich - that’s the disgraceful side of social media - the ability for people to hide behind a screen and post as you say - racist , sexist messages to anyone they wish and be able to have no responsibility.

Twitter for example has become a disgusting social media base and the sooner they address it the better.

Add in cyber bullying which is very harmful

Sadly, nothing will happen. The value of any social media platform is in the number of people using it and I cannot see Facebook or Twitter closing or freezing billions of accounts until such time as everyone has provided ID etc. The best hope is that rival company (and probably Amazon or Microsoft are the only ones with the funding to do so) set up a new platform based on all participants using real names and having been identified. If that takes off then it may force change in others but until then, you may get stricter algorhythms maybe but not much more.

 

[CliveW]

the first thing i have to do is to google them to find who they are.

In terms of greenhouse gasses, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140g of CO2 per Kilometre. (I found this using a Google search! )

 

[Robster59]

It's the world we live in, and it is sad but true that people seem to be affected and influenced by these "influencers" rather than having their own mind and not following the flock like sheep.

 

[GB72]

It's the world we live in, and it is sad but true that people seem to be affected and influenced by these "influencers" rather than having their own mind and not following the flock like sheep.

To be fair, it has always been like this to a certain extent. In the past it was getting your product to be used by pop stars, TV stars or film stars and people would flock out and buy something. Marketing through the cult of celebrity has been going for a while now. What social media did was take the traditional celebrity out of the equation and create their own and market directly through people on youtube and instagram directly to the desired demographic. To be fair to some influencers, they have actually worked to get where they are, creating free content and often buying and reviewing product to get there views up. Thinking up and creating content, then editing and uploading it takes time and you need to be putting 3 or 4 pieces of content up every week just to get attention. It does actually take serious work to get to the millions of subscribers and followers needed to get sent products etc and to make reasonable money and so it is not the simple process some assume.

 

[2blue]

It's absolutely nothing new. Celebrities have been the stock in trade of the gutter press for 200 years or more and have been influencing people's consumer choices that long too.

Yep..... it's called Royal patronage.

 

[Mudball]

In terms of greenhouse gasses, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140g of CO2 per Kilometre. (I found this using a Google search! )

This is why we left.. i want BoJo to set our own emission limits.. he is personally sending a lot of hot emissions at the moment

(This is not a political post, just a joke... pl be gentle with me)

on the subject of google search.. this is a good visualiser http://www.janavirgin.com/CO2/

 

[fundy]

This is why we left.. i want BoJo to set our own emission limits.. he is personally sending a lot of hot emissions at the moment

(This is not a political post, just a joke... pl be gentle with me)

on the subject of google search.. this is a good visualiser http://www.janavirgin.com/CO2/

out of interest, how many times can you make the same joke before it does become political?

 

[Ser Shankalot]

I find 99% of modern social media totally vacuous, but I don't begrudge them their success. Nothing comes from nothing - it must take a ton of hard work and a decent slice of luck to be successful in a hyper-competitive field which has almost zero barriers to entry. Just because it doesn't appeal to me doesn't mean they aren't very good at what they do. As others have mentioned before, advertising and marketing have been around since day dot. And 50 yrs ago Warhol said we'd all have our 15 minutes.

I used to think Paris Hilton and the Kardashians were the biggest airheads on the planet back in the day. But then I realized it takes serious business skill to create a $1bn brand. Yes, they came from fabulously wealthy families, but they still created something from scratch.

It's the anonymous online bullying and trolling on social media that I hate. I have no idea what the solution is, but it is a cancer on modern culture that has no redeeming effect whatsoever.